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"What is strikingly absent from standard and corporate media Black History time lines, are quotes from, or references to, the more poignantly educating and sorely needed critical statements of black historical celebrities on United States foreign policy - notably missing are the biting condemnations of America's imperialist wars and predatory international capitalism by Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr."Some will muse, 'ah, but our present wars of occupation are justified, America was attacked.' Yes, America was attacked, but by Saudi Arabians, not by Afghanis and Iraqis. The lies to justify wars in Third World nations are different, but the slaughter is the same.
One begins to wonder if there is perhaps an unwritten law that keeps even black leaders from quoting Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.' 1967 condemnations of U.S. wars and covert criminal CIA activities to support overseas investments and trade. During Black History Month, leaders of all political factions in American society, including of course black leaders, as usual, quoted Rev. King Jr.' inspiring civil rights, equality and antiracism pronouncements. Full Stop. As usual.
One did not hear Andrew Young, Jessie Jackson, Rev. King Jr.' widow, Rev. Sharpton or Barack Obama refer to Rev. King Jr.' 1967 denunciations of U.S. foreign policy in their statements to the public.
Representatives Barbara Lee, John Conyers, Charles Rangel, Jessie Jackson Jr., and all the other congressional black caucus and progressive caucus members have NOT been quoting Rev. King Jr. on the floor of Congress to try to stop the Democrats from continuing to fund the wars of occupation and to unblock the Bush and Cheney impeachment bills pending. If they had, we would have witnessed such bold moves on C-span telecasts of sessions of the House of Representatives, and most likely the conglomerate owned entertainment/news channel would have felt forced to give coverage as well.
Although the onus for confronting the gung-ho promotion of wars for whatever pretense, excuse or reasoning is firmly on the white community rather than on Afro-Americans, and King's 67 blistering anti-war words are public domain and right there on the internet for the googling by any and all sincerely motivated activists for peace and justice, one cannot help but wonder at the recalcitrance of those highly profiled Afro-Americans in the public eye to come forward and pick up where King left off - in a pool of blood.
If the hesitancy to quote King's call for each of us to protest America's wars and covert actions in third world nations be out of fear? 'There is safety in numbers': numbers of us quoting the words of the only American allotted the national recognition of a public holiday honoring his birth. How dangerous would that be? (Almost like quoting the bible.)
One and all could simply quote King verbatim without interpretation or making unnecessary connection to current wars, which the mass media could slander and call 'unpatriotic'.
Sound bites of a few words:
"My country, the greatest purveyor of violence in the world!"
"Silence is treason!"
"Everyone must protest!"
King's anti-imperialism speech in New York one year to the day before his assassination remains an embarrassment for all members of the establishment, an establishment which felt obliged to make King's birthday a national holiday.
Rather than educate, President Obama feels it necessary to go out of his way to praise those who were sent to war in Vietnam War along with those who fought and are fighting a war in Iraq which the President himsellf had called a "dumb" during his campaign for election.
When King's thundering against, and teaching about, imperialism, now deleted from Black History, becomes known by America's young, the nation's true interests will become more important than the interests of its capitalists.
(For those readers wishing to read the whole article of March 1, 2008, click on
Black History Month Ignored MLKJr. Condemnation of U.S. Wars, Predatory Capitalism
